Just don't stir up any dust - Exposures to dust, smoke, gases and vapours.

08/16/2017

Just don't stir up any dust - Exposures to dust, smoke, gases and vapours.

Dust is almost everywhere but is often not recognised as a hazard for health. But dust can have severe health consequences. Year after year around 6,000 cases of disorders of the respiratory tract caused by dust are recognized as occupational diseases in Germany. The results of a German Employment Survey show that around one in eight employees comes frequently into contact with dust, smoke, gases or vapours. Many workers in the construction industry and manufacturing industries are particularly affected.

Even if a dust does not contain any hazardous chemicals it can still endanger health. In particular the small particles in dust can get into the fine pulmonary alveoli and there trigger inflammatory processes or even cancer. Although relatively large dust particles settle out rapidly and do not penetrate into the lungs, they can - depending on their type - cause damage to the nose and throat.

Therefore health and safety measures should be firmly integrated into the individual work processes and the employees should be regularly trained. Particular attention should be paid here to the areas of work requiring only low qualifications. The hazards arising in connection with work with hazardous substances at the workplace must be systematically evaluated.